


Baiting the Bear

by Merfilly



Series: Safehaven [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Padmé Amidala Lives, Vader's an ass, but Ahsoka is stubborn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 12:55:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7893295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Echo found Vader for them, and Ahsoka doesn't even hesitate to stick to her plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baiting the Bear

Luck, or the Force, was looking out for the pair. Echo had turned up intel that put Vader on a planet, far enough from the Core to be reachable, with his flagship in the shipyards for a refit.

Ahsoka and Rex jumped on the opportunity, using a freighter and cargo load as cover to get there, holding out hope that they moved fast enough.

From the Imperial presence on arrival, their luck had held. Ahsoka had her lightsabers carefully hidden in the pack she wore, and both used holes in the security screening process to get out of port without actually being seen, leaving the volunteers from Naboo to conduct business.

"Where?" Rex asked. Ahsoka flashed a sharp-toothed smile, and led the way.

+++

Darth Vader, feared by all, and scourge of the Empire and its enemies alike, was unaccustomed to being approached by beings without fear. As he swept through the hall, his attendant Noghri behind him, he took note of the robed figures with faint interest as they did not immediately turn away once they saw him in the corridor.

"Lord Vader," the taller one said, voice neutral and faintly familiar across the years of memory. "I regret meeting you like this, but I ask audience."

"Who are you?" he asked, even as his Noghri coiled, ready to deal with the intruders.

Ahsoka reached up and swept her cloak back, baring her face. "Someone with vital information for you, Darth Vader." She used his title, the name he had been given, and struggled not to choke on the bile it raised. 

The Force attempt to strangle her, immediately, had been relentlessly prepared for. His energy rose around her throat, and she fought it, using her knowledge and training to push the energy away. Her companion was tense, and his fingers itched for a blaster, but she had not given him the signal to act.

"Impressive, Tano." Vader's hand came down, and with it, the war of the Force was over, for now. "You will accompany me. Alone."

This too was falling in line with what she anticipated, but Rex wanted to balk. A shrill whistle in Togruti sent him away, though, not willing to disobey her. He would fall back to the point they had agreed on… and hopefully evade watchful eyes in doing so.

Vader motioned the pair of Noghri to fall in behind his guest, not setting them on the other person, not yet. They had the scent, so if needed, he would turn them loose to track the being.

"You have continued to improve your skills. This could be very useful to me, my former student."

"If this is the beginning of a recruiting speech, save it, Lord Vader. I am not interested in your power, only in making a truth evident to you," she said. "It is why I come to speak, not fight."

"Wise, for you would lose."

She snorted at him with disdain for that, then curtailed her impudent streak, feeling the lash of anger from the man at her side. "Perhaps," she allowed. That she had trained herself to the point of collapse, time and again, needed to not be said. She kept silent until they entered the chamber he led her to.

"What data do you have for me?" he asked her. 

"I have a data pad in my pack," she said before reaching and getting it from inside her robe, out of the pocket in the pack she had placed it for ease. Her lightsabers were a comfort to her, but this was not the time. "The information I have is about a woman, one that once held a place in high esteem, and her fate."

She could feel the anger lick at her like flames, as he surmised who she meant. "Tano, if you are here to trick me—"

"I am not! I have truth, when I am certain you have been fed lies!" She held the data pad out to him, letting him take it with a Force pull. She cursed the mask for barring her sight of his face, but she felt the fire of rage building ever hotter. If he had no more shielding than that, how did he expect to ever destroy the man holding his chains?

"She lives?"

Those two words kindled hope in her. "She does, or would, if I could break the energy drain on her. In the six years that I have protected her, I have had no luck doing so, and can only attempt it once every few months. My medic monitors closely. We keep her in full stasis, save those times, and during those times, she is fed a nutrient mix through her veins. But the longer this goes on, the less likely she will have a safe recovery."

"Kenobi gave her to you?"

There was a sharp edge in those words, and Ahsoka knew she was in danger. "No, he did not. Her status was highlighted by my medic, and he made the call to use stasis to save her life. I took responsibility for her out of loyalty to someone who had tried hard to save me from death."

She let her eyes bore into him, making it clear that the Senator was not the only one she owed her life to, even if this remorseless killer had then slaughtered innocents.

"What of her child?"

Bantha-spit. Why did he have to be perceptive now?

"Will you help me save her?" Ahsoka countered. 

"Ahsoka," he said, using a warning tone, but it was her first name, not the clan name!

"I have taken my place as teacher, and guardian, very seriously, Darth Vader. I will allow no harm to come to her or a child of hers! You know this!"

"I could strip the details from your mind, take them for myself to protect!" he raged at her.

"And have the Emperor steal them away, to make a new apprentice to rid himself of you?" she countered, even as she bolstered her shielding. "Have him resurrect her, twist her or torture her just to torment you or keep you in line?"

The Sith Lord contemplated her words carefully, then inclined his head toward her. "You are both bold and ruthless. But, I will have my family, Tano. As soon as I deal with the Emperor."

"Then fix it, to where I can heal milady Amidala," Ahsoka challenged him. "So that she can see the world for herself, and be free to choose again!"

He regarded her steadily, then reached a hand out. "Your comm."

She pulled the armored gauntlet off, holding it out. He pulled it over, inputting an encrypted code. It was a risk; he could have a slicer follow it back. However, Echo should be able to confound that, she knew, as she accepted it back.

With any luck, he and the Emperor would kill each other.

"You will answer, when I comm."

"I will," she promised him. "Now, I've been gone from my wards long enough."

"Your companion will be detained, as insurance."

Ahsoka's temper snapped then. "Over my dead body… and believe me, you will not find Amidala without me!" she snarled at him. "He stays with me, and you have your comm link with me. I have acted in good faith; now show there's something more to you than a jerk with a power trip!"

His fist clenched. "You offer me no assurance!"

She tapped on her gauntlet, and a display of the stasis pod appeared, with nothing around it to betray where it was. "Trust in my faith to this woman to not betray you. You're so kriffing used to everything being a plot! But I only want my friend to survive!"

The mask stared at the eternally frozen features of Padmé Amidala in the holo, and the fist relaxed.

"Go, then. You are responsible for her and the child. If any harm comes to them, I will hunt you and every person you care for to a painful death."

"I wouldn't expect less." She pulled her cloak back up and turned to leave, saving the relief for when she and Rex were safely in hyperspace.

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note:
> 
> I tend to go for redemptive arcs built around a potential case of disassociated identity in Anakin/Vader. I also tend to play up Ahsoka's willingness to redeem/save Vader. This is not one of those fics. And it boils down to having spoken to Kenobi RIGHT after Mustafar. She is horrified by what Anakin did in becoming Vader, and cannot see him ever being at peace with his actions if there is any part of him that might regret it.


End file.
